


Love or Lust?

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:02:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28816785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Two partners in a small business, and the wife of one of them, are murdered
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8
Collections: SenThurs.accomplice





	Love or Lust?

Love or Lust?

by Bluewolf

Several years previously, Terry Brewster and Luke Hopewell, friends from childhood, had set up a pottery business in partnership. Both enjoyed making decorative bowls and vases, and each had a style of painting their work that gave the firm two distinct, but equally popular, styles of design.

When he was twenty-seven, Terry met Rhona Raglan. They married after a few short weeks of courtship... and for a few months everything in their lives seemed to be perfect.

But as his partner's wedding anniversary drew closer, Luke discovered in himself a jealous streak.

He had always been a welcome visitor at Terry's house; Rhona, too, treated him like a brother. But Luke was beginning to realize that he was resenting Rhona more and more. Terry was his.

Luke wasn't exactly gay - he didn't want to share his friend's bed, any more than he wanted to have an affair with Rhona. But he wanted to be the person Terry turned to if he had a problem. He didn't - quite - begrudge Terry his happy marriage... but more and more he found himself wishing that Terry had never met Rhona.

***

Terry and Luke both spent two days a week, Monday and Tuesday, teaching their craft; Terry at Cascade High and Luke at the art department at Rainier.

They both therefore had rock-solid alibis when Rhona was found dead in the garden of her house three weeks before her wedding anniversary. She had been shot.

Terry was absolutely shattered. Luke was less affected - indeed, he wasn't totally sorry that she was dead - but he gave his friend unqualified support, giving Terry a room in his house till he had the chance to come to terms with his loss. Luke made all the arrangements with the funeral parlor; and Terry was happy to let him take charge.

The investigation into her death was given to Major Crime rather than Homicide because Rhona was the second cousin of the Mayor's wife.

Both Terry and Luke were - obviously - questioned by Jim and Blair, but their alibis held. No evidence could be found in the garden; Jim came to the conclusion that Rhona had been shot from a distance, and the killer had never been anywhere near the house.

For a few minutes, Jim was mildly suspicious of Luke, who had admitted being a little jealous that his friend had found a wife while he hadn't; once they were alone again, Blair asked, "Do you think Hopewell maybe had an accomplice who did the actual killing?"

"No," Jim said. "I did wonder for a moment, but I really don't think he would have done anything to hurt his friend."

Blair nodded. "Yes," he said. "That was the impression I got too." He sighed. "And now we have to tell Mayor Crawford... "

"That there doesn't seem to be any way to discover who killed his cousin-in-law."

***

Terry stayed with Luke for a month after the funeral. During that time they went to Terry's house several times and gradually cleared Rhona's things, giving her clothes to Goodwill.

Luke did suggest to Terry that he could make his home permanently with him, so that he didn't have to live in a house that held so many memories; but while he appreciated the offer, Terry was reluctant to impose. Luke insisted that it wasn't an imposition, but Terry, while more than grateful to his friend, insisted on going home.

Ten days later, when there was no sign of Luke at his work on Thursday morning and no reply to Terry's phone call, Terry went to Luke's house... and found him lying dead, just inside the front door. Like Rhona, he had been shot - but this time, at close range.

Eyes wet with tears, Terry called Major Crime, asked for Detective Ellison, and reported the killing.

Jim and Blair arrived at the house inside twenty minutes.

While Blair questioned Terry, Jim checked the house.

There was no sign that the house had been broken into. It was as if someone had knocked on the door, shot Luke when he answered the knock, and then closed the door, leaving Luke - if he wasn't killed instantly - to bleed to death.

***

The business had a shop attached, with a young assistant, Sylvia King, running it. Sylvia was just seventeen, but very efficient; she offered to see to the details of Luke's funeral, and Terry accepted her help gratefully.

Jim and Blair went to the funeral. It seemed possible that whoever had killed Rhona and Luke had - basically - been targeting Terry, killing people Terry had loved, and might turn up at the funeral to see just how successful he had been.

Terry was the chief mourner with Sylvia sitting beside him; behind them was a young man who resembled Sylvia and was possibly two or three years older; a brother, come to support his sister, aware that Sylvia was very young for the responsibility she had assumed?

Jim frowned as he looked at the woman. There was something about her attitude... and that of the man behind her...

"Jim?" Blair breathed.

Jim shook his head. "Nothing I can put a finger on," he murmured.

The meal afterwards was a depressing affair. Luke had been well-liked at Rainier, and several of the students he had taught there had attended the funeral. There were some of the firm's customers present. But there was a general awareness that Terry had lost both his wife and his partner...

***

Terry tried not to let himself get too depressed. Sylvia tried to keep him optimistic, but soon discovered she was fighting a losing battle, and three weeks after Luke's funeral Terry called Sylvia into his office.

"I'm sorry," he said. "You've been an excellent worker, and I'll give you a good reference, but I've decided to close the business. I'm not sure what I'm going to do - probably apply for a permanent teaching job in the art department at Cascade High - but without Luke I've lost interest in carrying on." He shook his head. "I don't think even Rhona, if she hadn't been killed, could have persuaded me to keep on with the business without Luke."

"It's just been three weeks," Sylvia said. "Surely that's too soon to give up everything?"

"Luke and I met when we were three, and were best friends within days," Terry said. "All our lives we encouraged each other... " He fell silent, then said, "I'm not even sure I want to carry on with a career in art. Anyway, as I said, I want to close the business. I'll give some thought to the future - like I said, Cascade High's art department is a possibility, but I think I'll probably get out of art as a career."

"But you're so good at it!" Sylvia said.

"But Luke - my inspiration - has gone," Terry said quietly. "I'll give you a reasonable severance payment and, as I said, a good reference. But I won't need your services after we close tonight."

She looked at him, and knew that he wasn't going to change his mind. She got up and walked out.

***

Two days later, Terry Brewster was found dead in his garden, close to where his wife had been found. He, too, had been shot.

Jim and Blair - called out because they had dealt with the earlier deaths - once again found nothing. They interviewed Sylvia, who told them that she had, in effect, been fired earlier in the week because her boss had decided to close the business, and she hadn't seen him since.

But there was something about her attitude...

She was telling the truth. But her heart rate was erratic.

It was Blair who asked, "Who was the man sitting behind you at Luke Hopewell's funeral?"

Jim was immediately aware of a sharp increase in her heart rate.

"My... my brother," she said.

"Was he the person who killed the Brewsters and Mr. Hopewell?"

Sylvia stared at him for a moment, then burst into tears.

Jim waited patiently until the sobbing eased, then asked, "Why?"

"When I got the job... I fell in love with Terry. But he never noticed me; he married Rhona. I waited for a while, hoping he'd realize he'd made a mistake... then I got Harry to kill her. But he still didn't turn to me - he turned to Luke. And after Harry killed Luke - Terry still didn't turn to me, in spite of everything I did... so I got Harry to shoot him, too. If I couldn't have him, nobody could... "

Jim drew a deep breath. "Sylvia King, you are under arrest for inciting the killing of Rhona Brewster, Luke Hopewell and Terry Brewster. You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say can and will be used... "

***

"All that mattered to her was what she wanted; even to the extent of using her brother as an accomplice," Blair said. "And at her age... how long before she outgrew her infatuation with Terry Brewster?"

"Probably not long," Jim agreed as he watched the patrol officers they had called for escorting her away.

They returned to the truck, and Jim drove to the PD, knowing that he would push for 'temporary insanity' as an excuse for the infatuated seventeen-year-old whose lust had caused the deaths of three good people and would have her brother incarcerated for years as a murderer...


End file.
